Talk:What It's Like/@comment-3575890-20140313170138
(BR rant because I don't believe I've ever expressed my love for it on here) As much as I love The Hunger Games series, I still prefer Battle Royale. So it just slightly irks me how much recognition and points for originality THG gets, when there’s a darker, more frightening tale told before it. Don’t get me wrong. THG is most certainly an intricately-woven dystopian story. It deserves all of the praise it gets. But no, it is not one-of-a-kind original. Now I’m not pitting THG against BR nor am I advocating the tired claim that THG is a rip-off of BR. I’m not one of those people who will hate on a formidable rival to a book I’ve read before it, just because they’re similar. They are two extremely different stories, inspite of their shared premise. However, they can just as well be considered counterparts to each other, and when it comes to which I prefer more than the other, I’ll just always choose BR. It will always be one of my favorite novels of all time. The predominant reason I prefer BR is because it’s just a lot more real. You have these young kids that are thrown into a life or death predicament with no warning in advance, no training, and virtually no outside help. I mean yes, being picked at random to participate in a televised fight to the death is a terrifying concept, but the very thought of just going about your daily routine only to be plucked from an ordinary setting like a school bus during a field trip and imprisoned on a desolate island is a lot more chilling to me. The characters aren’t tributes, they’re just kids and they react to their situation like regular children would. (save for a few of them, who get by like they’re professionals) They’re scared out of their minds and most of them just sit around like sitting ducks because they’re too afraid to do anything. And they die. In the most horrible ways imaginable by the hand of their very own classmates, acquaintances and friends. The real horror is not in that they are forced to commit murder, but that their very survival depends on them having to murder people they know and have grown up with. Seen in the halls every day. It just takes the horror element to a whole new level of extreme. Also, because the narrative is ever-changing, you never see what’s happening from just one point of view. All of the students - all 42 of them -are individually explored and fleshed out. Every one of their mindsets is different, and there is always at least one character you feel like you can identify with, which just makes the situation even more horrifying to the reader, because you begin to envision yourself in that character’s shoes. I mean, yes THG is powerful! Brilliant even. But Battle Royale is more psychologically frightening, and for me at least, it has more of an emotional impact because it presents a greater insight into the minds of its characters. THG is a solid story, but BR is more than just a telling of events. It is a frightening examination into the human condition. It puts you in a terrifying mindset. I’d consider both stunning masterpieces, but by the end of the day it is what you take from BR that will seep into your subconscience and haunt your thoughts.